That leads to a good question Sam, something that should probably be a topic of its own...

If you're a serious martial artist and you sustain injuries that would limit your ability to perform the art/s, how do you continue being involved considering improvement/advancement is 90% dependent on the ability to demonstrate physical skill?

Do you give it up? Do you coach?

Just curious on this.

BTW, you must be in the SCA. I've always wanted to do that, but never had the time.

Phrost - what I did after my most recent injury is lay off the aikido and concentrate on the taichi. I also tried escrima, but my instructor stopped teaching it on a regular basis due to the politics involved.
If I get any more serious injuries I'll have to give serious to consideration to quitting completely. I don't want to coach, not after my experience as a junior fencing coach, also I don't know anywhere near enough about any one style.

As for the other stuff, I'm not in the SCA, but I do something similar on a much smaller scale. The weapons may be fibreglass/rubber but they still hurt like hell. It teaches you good one vs many skills and how to handle adrenaline reasonably well.